Swiss Regulator Approves Plans For New Intermediate Storage Facility

17 Aug (NucNet): Switzerland’s Federal Inspectorate of Nuclear Safety (ENSI) said on 17 August 2017 that a planned intermediate storage facility for low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste (LILW) at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) can be built and put into service, although conditions including higher seismic safety margins must be met. ENSI said the planned ‘Stapelplatz Ost’ building in Würenlingen, northern Switzerland, will be a low-risk facility that will be used until a deep geologic repository is available. PSI filed an application with the Federal Office of Energy in May 2014 for authorisation to build and operate the facility, which will hold waste from R&D and radioactive isotope applications in medicine and industry. Radioactive waste and used fuel from nuclear power plants is mostly stored at the central interim storage called Zwilag at Würenlingen, next to PSI. In February 2015 Switzerland’s national radioactive waste cooperative Nagra narrowed down candidate sites for the proposed repository to two areas, one in the eastern Jura region and another in northeast Zurich. Switzerland is planning two repositories, one for LILW and the other for HLW.